The Patience of the Mother of God
Beside Jesus, his Mother, Mary stands at the foot of the Cross. As predicted by Simeon, she had to endure the sword piercing her heart. She is there fully aware of what is happening, accepting calmly the will of God. After Jesus, she is our model of patience.
***
Mary, who at the Annunciation called herself the “handmaid of the Lord,” remained throughout her earthly life faithful to what this name expresses. In this she confirmed that she was a true disciple of Christ; our Lord strongly emphasized that his mission was one of service: the Son of man “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28). Thus, Mary became the first of those who “serving Christ also in others with humility and patience lead their brothers and sisters to that King whom to serve is to reign,”1 and she fully obtained that “state of royal freedom” proper to Christ’s disciples: to serve means to reign! (John Paul II, Enc. Redemptoris Mater, no. 41)
***
“When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took the Child to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required. Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Lk 2:22-35)
The presentiment of the Cross and the allusion to the sword which would pierce her heart did not embitter the life of our Lady. It is impossible to think of the Virgin Mary as a bitter person. Bitterness, in the common sense of the word, is related to discontentment; a bitter person is one who is not satisfied with his lot, who looks on life through the clouded glass of his unfortunate experience.
A person who surrenders himself unconditionally to God, like our Lady, may indeed experience bitterness, a noble bitterness, but one which does not in any way change his way of life, his personality, his attitude to things. (F. Suárez, Mary of Nazareth)
***
The flight into Egypt must have engraved itself vividly in Mary’s mind. However much she tried she could hardly forget an event that changed her whole life as much as that precipitous flight into a strange, distant land, especially when she had to stay there for an unspecified time.
If our Lady had viewed life from a purely natural point of view, she would have had more than sufficient reasons to be upset. For if God was almighty, why wouldn’t he spare his Son that danger? Why would he burden them with the anguish of the flight into Egypt and the misery of living in a strange country? Why would he disrupt the peaceful course of their lives with such a journey? It would have been easy for God to make Herod die a little sooner, or else change his evil designs. But instead, he permitted the violent deaths of innocent children who had nothing to do with Herod or Jesus, and all the resulting sorrow to their mothers.
Mary, however, pondered these things in her heart. She did not understand them, at least some of them, but she knew that God was behind everything and that what she did not understand had its explanation in God. She did not ask for miracles, but respected the mysterious wishes of the Creator, she knew the power of human liberty, she knew that sin existed. Her Son was concerned precisely with these things. He had come to repair the damage that man had done by sin and the misuse of his freedom. God knew what value these things, which from the human viewpoint were real catastrophes, had in relation to eternal life. (F. Suárez, Mary of Nazareth)
***
As St Matthew remarks, another prophecy had been fulfilled: “Out of Egypt have I called my son” (Mt 2:15). God uses man’s actions, always respecting his free will, to fulfil His designs. In this case, God used Herod’s evil plan to fulfil the prophecy; just as He had used the emperor’s census as a starting point for a series of events which ended in the fulfillment of another prophecy–and Jesus was born in Bethlehem when everything pointed logically to his being born in Nazareth.
This is the wonderful thing about God’s action in the world: without forcing anyone or anything, he makes of everything an instrument of his glory for the good of those who love him. It is of no importance that sometimes–or many times–that particular good is not the good we would have liked. It is enough for us to know that God makes no mistakes and that he always wins, so that nothing, no event, no person can make us lose our serenity and peace. God can right everything that seems wrong and save everything that seems lost. Even though, as long as we are limited by our own smallness, our observation is restricted to what we see–which is not much–and the world frequently appears to be woven of events whose meaning we do not perceive.
“Here,” Chesterton reminds us through one of his most famous characters, Father Brown, “we live on the wrong side of the tapestry ...; the things that happen here have no meaning whatsoever; but later on, elsewhere, everything becomes meaningful.” True enough, now we can see only the wrong side of the tapestry, only what is human and all the imperfections that it entails, one has to go round to “the other side” to see things in their entirety: our contribution, and God’s contribution to the action. God uses our human actions, corrects them, and makes them whole by grace. (F. Suárez, Mary of Nazareth)
***
During those three hours on Calvary, Mary was weighed down under a trial so terrible that we will never fully understand it and never be able to describe it. She saw them stripping Jesus of his clothes; she saw him abused, humiliated. She saw him deserted by those who had once acclaimed him, by those for whom he had worked miracles, by his disciples who were now ashamed of him. She saw the chief priests of her people, the highest authorities of the Temple, insulting him, challenging him to come down from the Cross as a proof of his divinity.
She saw how Jesus kept silent, how he did not defend himself from accusations levied against him, how he did not give them the proof they demanded. It was as if his power had vanished the moment he fell into the hands of his enemies; as if they were right all along. She knew that her Son was innocent, that he was the Son of God, that he had done only good to others and never hurt anyone. And God did not raise a finger to defend his Son, as if he did not care. (F. Suárez, Mary of Nazareth)
***
The trial reached its crisis with that cry from Jesus, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”(Mk 15:34). It is the moment of greatest desolation, the hour of greatest darkness. It is the breakdown of everything human in him, as if Jesus had lost all the courage he got from knowing he was sustained by his Father.
Earlier, Mary had heard Jesus asking the Father to forgive those who were crucifying him because they knew not what they were doing. She had heard him promise Paradise to one of the thieves beside him. Between Father and Son there was, then, a perfect communication.
And now, suddenly, the horrible thing happened. It seemed as if Jesus now found nothing, a blank, where before he had found the Father. Before it was: “This is my beloved Son...;” and now: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”... Could this be Mary’s hideous temptation, the temptation of abandoning the Father for the Son?
But again, our Lady rose to the heights that God expected of her. She loved her Son as no other mother is capable of loving. But she did not love Jesus at the expense of, or above, the will of the Father. On the contrary, she loved and accepted the will of the Father even at the cost of her Son and above him, if we may use these expressions. And this does not mean that she had no feelings, or was hard-hearted, or insensitive. Rather, she had to have a big, courageous heart to bear all this pain without shirking. (F. Suárez, Mary of Nazareth)
***
Our Lady did not merely stand and watch the drama taking place, helpless to prevent or change it. Her participation was active; she was no mere spectator. She consented to it all. She did not intercede for her Son; she did not beg for mercy, or appeal to any friend; she made no effort to change the course of events or in any way interfere with the Will of the Father. She accepted it with respect and left to Him all initiative, as at the Annunciation, as always. (F. Suárez, Mary of Nazareth)
***
After Jesus’ burial, the disciples were dejected and confused. They were discouraged and depressed, as if all their hopes and dreams had died with Jesus. They were so downcast that some–those who went to Emmaus–deserted. They thought back on those three years of following Jesus. What a magnificent adventure it had been. They had surrendered themselves completely, leaving home and family and profession, trusting completely in Jesus’ word. And now after all that, they found themselves abandoned and disillusioned, with the additional risk of being persecuted for having been foolish enough to follow Jesus.
During those hours after Christ’s death, Mary’s faith and patience was the only bridge in this world abandoned by Jesus which joined the Passion with the Resurrection. The disciples gathered about her and she began to be their mother, teaching them to wait patiently and serenely, trusting in the promise. (F. Suárez, Mary of Nazareth)
Footnote:
1 Second Vatican Council, Dogm. Const. Lumen Gentium, no. 36.
***
Mary, who at the Annunciation called herself the “handmaid of the Lord,” remained throughout her earthly life faithful to what this name expresses. In this she confirmed that she was a true disciple of Christ; our Lord strongly emphasized that his mission was one of service: the Son of man “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28). Thus, Mary became the first of those who “serving Christ also in others with humility and patience lead their brothers and sisters to that King whom to serve is to reign,”1 and she fully obtained that “state of royal freedom” proper to Christ’s disciples: to serve means to reign! (John Paul II, Enc. Redemptoris Mater, no. 41)
***
“When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took the Child to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required. Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Lk 2:22-35)
The presentiment of the Cross and the allusion to the sword which would pierce her heart did not embitter the life of our Lady. It is impossible to think of the Virgin Mary as a bitter person. Bitterness, in the common sense of the word, is related to discontentment; a bitter person is one who is not satisfied with his lot, who looks on life through the clouded glass of his unfortunate experience.
A person who surrenders himself unconditionally to God, like our Lady, may indeed experience bitterness, a noble bitterness, but one which does not in any way change his way of life, his personality, his attitude to things. (F. Suárez, Mary of Nazareth)
***
The flight into Egypt must have engraved itself vividly in Mary’s mind. However much she tried she could hardly forget an event that changed her whole life as much as that precipitous flight into a strange, distant land, especially when she had to stay there for an unspecified time.
If our Lady had viewed life from a purely natural point of view, she would have had more than sufficient reasons to be upset. For if God was almighty, why wouldn’t he spare his Son that danger? Why would he burden them with the anguish of the flight into Egypt and the misery of living in a strange country? Why would he disrupt the peaceful course of their lives with such a journey? It would have been easy for God to make Herod die a little sooner, or else change his evil designs. But instead, he permitted the violent deaths of innocent children who had nothing to do with Herod or Jesus, and all the resulting sorrow to their mothers.
Mary, however, pondered these things in her heart. She did not understand them, at least some of them, but she knew that God was behind everything and that what she did not understand had its explanation in God. She did not ask for miracles, but respected the mysterious wishes of the Creator, she knew the power of human liberty, she knew that sin existed. Her Son was concerned precisely with these things. He had come to repair the damage that man had done by sin and the misuse of his freedom. God knew what value these things, which from the human viewpoint were real catastrophes, had in relation to eternal life. (F. Suárez, Mary of Nazareth)
***
As St Matthew remarks, another prophecy had been fulfilled: “Out of Egypt have I called my son” (Mt 2:15). God uses man’s actions, always respecting his free will, to fulfil His designs. In this case, God used Herod’s evil plan to fulfil the prophecy; just as He had used the emperor’s census as a starting point for a series of events which ended in the fulfillment of another prophecy–and Jesus was born in Bethlehem when everything pointed logically to his being born in Nazareth.
This is the wonderful thing about God’s action in the world: without forcing anyone or anything, he makes of everything an instrument of his glory for the good of those who love him. It is of no importance that sometimes–or many times–that particular good is not the good we would have liked. It is enough for us to know that God makes no mistakes and that he always wins, so that nothing, no event, no person can make us lose our serenity and peace. God can right everything that seems wrong and save everything that seems lost. Even though, as long as we are limited by our own smallness, our observation is restricted to what we see–which is not much–and the world frequently appears to be woven of events whose meaning we do not perceive.
“Here,” Chesterton reminds us through one of his most famous characters, Father Brown, “we live on the wrong side of the tapestry ...; the things that happen here have no meaning whatsoever; but later on, elsewhere, everything becomes meaningful.” True enough, now we can see only the wrong side of the tapestry, only what is human and all the imperfections that it entails, one has to go round to “the other side” to see things in their entirety: our contribution, and God’s contribution to the action. God uses our human actions, corrects them, and makes them whole by grace. (F. Suárez, Mary of Nazareth)
***
During those three hours on Calvary, Mary was weighed down under a trial so terrible that we will never fully understand it and never be able to describe it. She saw them stripping Jesus of his clothes; she saw him abused, humiliated. She saw him deserted by those who had once acclaimed him, by those for whom he had worked miracles, by his disciples who were now ashamed of him. She saw the chief priests of her people, the highest authorities of the Temple, insulting him, challenging him to come down from the Cross as a proof of his divinity.
She saw how Jesus kept silent, how he did not defend himself from accusations levied against him, how he did not give them the proof they demanded. It was as if his power had vanished the moment he fell into the hands of his enemies; as if they were right all along. She knew that her Son was innocent, that he was the Son of God, that he had done only good to others and never hurt anyone. And God did not raise a finger to defend his Son, as if he did not care. (F. Suárez, Mary of Nazareth)
***
The trial reached its crisis with that cry from Jesus, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”(Mk 15:34). It is the moment of greatest desolation, the hour of greatest darkness. It is the breakdown of everything human in him, as if Jesus had lost all the courage he got from knowing he was sustained by his Father.
Earlier, Mary had heard Jesus asking the Father to forgive those who were crucifying him because they knew not what they were doing. She had heard him promise Paradise to one of the thieves beside him. Between Father and Son there was, then, a perfect communication.
And now, suddenly, the horrible thing happened. It seemed as if Jesus now found nothing, a blank, where before he had found the Father. Before it was: “This is my beloved Son...;” and now: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”... Could this be Mary’s hideous temptation, the temptation of abandoning the Father for the Son?
But again, our Lady rose to the heights that God expected of her. She loved her Son as no other mother is capable of loving. But she did not love Jesus at the expense of, or above, the will of the Father. On the contrary, she loved and accepted the will of the Father even at the cost of her Son and above him, if we may use these expressions. And this does not mean that she had no feelings, or was hard-hearted, or insensitive. Rather, she had to have a big, courageous heart to bear all this pain without shirking. (F. Suárez, Mary of Nazareth)
***
Our Lady did not merely stand and watch the drama taking place, helpless to prevent or change it. Her participation was active; she was no mere spectator. She consented to it all. She did not intercede for her Son; she did not beg for mercy, or appeal to any friend; she made no effort to change the course of events or in any way interfere with the Will of the Father. She accepted it with respect and left to Him all initiative, as at the Annunciation, as always. (F. Suárez, Mary of Nazareth)
***
After Jesus’ burial, the disciples were dejected and confused. They were discouraged and depressed, as if all their hopes and dreams had died with Jesus. They were so downcast that some–those who went to Emmaus–deserted. They thought back on those three years of following Jesus. What a magnificent adventure it had been. They had surrendered themselves completely, leaving home and family and profession, trusting completely in Jesus’ word. And now after all that, they found themselves abandoned and disillusioned, with the additional risk of being persecuted for having been foolish enough to follow Jesus.
During those hours after Christ’s death, Mary’s faith and patience was the only bridge in this world abandoned by Jesus which joined the Passion with the Resurrection. The disciples gathered about her and she began to be their mother, teaching them to wait patiently and serenely, trusting in the promise. (F. Suárez, Mary of Nazareth)
Footnote:
1 Second Vatican Council, Dogm. Const. Lumen Gentium, no. 36.